The Gnamer Nuzlocke Challenge

Really enjoyed that Nuzlocke post Darunia, I'm enjoying the different types of updates we all give here.

And on that note, who's up for some more screenshots?!

Spoiler:

sporkhead the Zigzagoon has fallen in battle to a critical hit. I can't tell you how cut up I am about it. Hopefully treesmurf the Wurmple will have a better fate.

Critical hits are a Nuzlockers bane. You can't predict for them - a Tackle you think you can easily take can become fatal.

Am I right in thinking the gift Pokemon count as your 1 catch for that area? I'm currently in Safron City where (if I remember correctly) there is 3 gift Pokemon, Lapras, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan. Want to make sure before I take one without thinking and then end up stuck with it. Probably need a new fighting type to replace Jawbreaker but then again a spare water type might be useful in case anything happens to Balladeer

Aye Gwyn, you are right with that. Just as in Celadon its either Eevee or one of the game corner pokemon. It counts as your Pokemon for the area so choose wisely!

I defeated Team Rocket in the Game Corner fairly easily and ran into their boss, he didnt put up much of a fight but he ran off before I could finish him off, left his Silph Scope behind though so I headed back to Pokemon Tower to see what was going on there, fought my way to the top and found more Team Rocket up there. I was not happy about that. They put up more of a fight than the guys in Celadon but they still went down pretty easily and the old guy I saved gave me his flute. Great, more useless free crap.

I headed back to Celadon to do the gym, this time it was a grass gym so it was Toffee and Humbugs time to shine, they worked well together with their flying moves. Things were going well, 4 gyms went down easily and I cleared Team Rocket out of both Celadon and Lavender Town, sadly as I arived in Safron City my luck took a turn for the worse.

Team Rocket had taken over the entire town and I figured taking them out would be a piece of cake but I made a very stupid mistake and forgot that fighting was good against normal, Choc Rat, the first Pokemon I caught and my second favourite Pokemon at the moment (Humbug is the first) was taken out in a single hit by a Machoke I switched to Humbug and finished him off with Aerial Ace. We stopped for a moment to mourn before heading into our next battle with an even stronger hatred for Team Rocket. I sent out Humbug, He sent out Weezing, I used Psychic, he used Self Destruct. Humbug fainted.

...

My 2 favourite Pokemon gone just like that. The rest of Team Rocket fell without too much trouble, bumped into my rival again but I was not in the mood for his usual crap, I was a little underleveled but I wasnt about to lose another Pokemon here and I was lucky enough to get a few critical hits on him.
At this point I was considering leaving and leveling up a bit but I'd come too far to turn back now so I continued on to once again battle Giovanni. he was tougher this time but I beat him again and he escaped again.
I am making it my personal goal in life to hunt him down and destroy him and everything he cares about

Loving the narratives, team! The only person I have hatred for at the moment is Lady Luck, as she took my sporkhead away from me. Since then, treesmurf the Cascoon (well, he is now) and Dusty the Taillow have replaced him on the roster. I'm cautiously levelling up in and around the Petalburg Woods area. Delighted to welcome Dusty, as he's helped diversify the squad. Bug catchers, beware!

I leveled up early on in the game and then because I was finding the early stuff so easy I didnt really think to level up a bit more now didnt realise how underleveled I was until I saw my Rivals Pokemon were all higher levels than mine when they've been lower the last few times. Going to spend a good ammount of time fixing that later before I carry on

Arriving back at Pokemon tower, I defeat my Rival who seems to be lagging behind me at this point. Making my way up I catch a Ghastly which I promptly name Balladuo, since the original Balladeer is dead and this is a ghost type it fits well. However at level 13 it would need some training to bring up to par with the rest of my squad.

I easily dispatch the possessed... people? Making full use of Gwyn's pursuit and nifty Blackglasses hold item alongside Shanks bite attack.

Finally I defeat Marowak and the Rockets that have decided to infest this place. Mr.Fuji is saved and bless him, he takes us out of the tower without the need of going down all those floors again.

Now I have the pokeflute I can decide my next location. I think Ill beat Koga before turning my attention to Sabrina, and Silph co...

Just made it to Floroma Town, however the double battle just before claimed my first loss. Phillips the Zubat is no more. On the plus side, I have a spare Zubat a mere 2 levels lower!

Link to Part I

In the interim:

- Did some grinding, raising George and Esmerelda to levels 10 and 9 respectively
- Realised that Esmerelda isn't actually a name
- Decided I didn't care, and that it could be a perfectly adequate Pokémon name
- Met a girl so engrossed in her studies of her notebook that she didn't notice me turning its pages twice
- Told a questionnaire to refuse the next morning.

Part II: Grind grind grind grind grind grind. Grind grind grind grind grind.

Having broken my rule of not buying from the Viridian Mart, I head towards Viridian Forest with two more Antidotes than before, hoping that I shan't need them. I am reminded of the loss of Theodore by a woman near the entrance, and cry a little inside. I approach the doorway. Hopefully, it's time to make a new friend.

With my resolve hardened like a Metapod, I step through the door and watch as the world turns green. Inside the forest, I meet a young man staring at a tree who tells me of his friends' itching for battle. I'll make sure that George scratches that itch. Or perhaps embers it. I take a careful step into the grass to the right, wherein after some more walking I find my next prospective partner - a level 4 Weedle. Esmerelda tackles it, bringing its HP most of the way down, but not yet into the red zone. The foe responds with a poison sting, leaving Esmerelda with a case of the purple bubbles. I decide to ignore the status ailment for now, and throw a ball.

Roll. Roll. Roll. And the stars fly.

Welcome to the crew, Frederick.

So pleased am I by how well that went that I almost forget to use an Antidote on Esmerelda. I cure her poison, p-p-pick up a Potion, and carry on. A bug catcher challenges me, and Esmerelda takes down both of his minions quickly with Gust. Continuing up the path to the right, I approach another of the tree-gazer's friends, this one called Doug. His three companions meet with a similar fate; only the Kakuna survives for a whole turn, and its hardening does nothing to aid it in getting through the next. Esmerelda is now a higher level than George, so I switch the two to even things out. I find an Antidote and another trainer, and George burns the fuck out of his two Caterpie.

Suddenly, I realise that I'm not actually sure where I am any more, so I wander back out to get a better grasp on the forest's layout and to heal Frederick so that I can begin to grind his levels. With my newfound appreciation for how fleeting my comrades' lives can truly be, I refuse to let him fight anything without a level substantially lower than his. The grind-fest is uneventful - Frederick eventually evolves, only takes down about four Pokémon by himself, and is put away so Esmerelda can have some fun. She's paralysed by a Pikachu's static, so I go back to Viridian to heal and disgust myself with my further patronage of the Mart. I ensure myself that I'll sneak in there soon during the night and steal all the merchandise.

I move slowly through the forest, grinding all the way. By the time I reach Pewter, Esmerelda is a Pidgeotto. I hear tell of Team Rocket being at Mt. Moon, and am forced to go to a museum and pay to look at old things and space things. My intention, however, is to kill some rocks and get a badge for it, but my attempts to leave and catch some more Pokémon before I do so are foiled by some bastard in green who takes me to the entrance to the gym. I decide that I should go and do some more grinding to help me - I'm at a severe disadvantage here, with two Pokémon who are weak against Rock, and one which will be if I evolve it. Perhaps, I think, if I level Frederick up enough without evolving him, I'll manage? Beating Brock with a Kakuna sounds pretty tough, but it may well be my best chance.

It's when I begin to grind again that I realise just how useless Frederick really is at the moment. He's scandalously weak - there's no way I could try to take on the Gym with him without days of levelling, and even then he may never get any moves that would be any good. But then, if I evolve him, he'll be stronger, sure, but he'll have an added weakness...

Nonetheless, as he is, he's no good to me. I cancel his evolution once, but the next time around I just let it happen, and, oh, the improvement! Had I known that Beedrill-Frederick would be this much better than Kakuna-Frederick I'd have rushed over when he was first trying to evolve and ripped the buzzing wonder right out of his cocoon.

Anyway, in case you couldn't tell, I like my Beedrill. He may not be any good against Brock, but at least he can grind levels by himself now. I figure that at this point Esmerelda is my best choice for facing Brock, being the highest-levelled member of the team, and I want to keep George at a low-ish level for now in order to catch more Pokémon later, so I go back to grinding and come out with a level 26 Pidgeotto.

I enter the gym, still worried about how I'll fare against the Rocks. Six steps onwards, and a kid walks up to me, giving a pretty inaccurate measure of distance. It really looks more like two steps to me.

Nonetheless, he's going to battle me. Out comes his face with arms and out comes my winged champion. It's time, Esmerelda. Time to take this kid down, or die trying. Let's see what you can do.

Next time: Just another boy-meets-bird story


Current team: Esmerelda, Female, Level 26 Pidgeotto; Frederick, Male, Level 15 Beedrill; George, Male, Level 11 Charmander

Requiescat Theodore (Rattata) in Pace

Does the Safari Zone count as 1 area or 4? I'm going to assume each Zone counts as a different area for now (seems fair seeing as catching is harder in the Safari Zone) but if anyone says otherwise I'll happily release any Pokemon I catch other than the first one

I thought it would be 1, same with caves, that's my logics anyway.

Doesnt matter anyway, I didnt manage to catch anything at all I hate the Safari Zone mechanics

Darunia: Level 26 by Pewter?! You must have done a LOT of grinding!

So it came to pass that I got the first Badge of Hoenn, the Stone Badge. It turns out that if you give a Balladeer a Bullet Seed TM, he turns into a demon. So much so that I evolved him into a Nuzleaf before the fight, which made Roxanne's Pokémon cannon fodder (or bullet fodder, arf). Finally! In a not-disturbing-at-all kind of way, an old man gives me a mobile phone, calls me to tell me I'm great as soon as I've left his building, and then admits that he's looking at me from his window! Anyway, I've spotted May at the exit to the town and my team is still relatively weak to fire Pokémon (which she will have, following my selection of Treecko (who's now a bit of Grovyle)).

sporkhead2, a Whismur, is now a prominent member of the line-up (inspired by Balladuo earlier in the thread - thanks for the idea, Vidofnir!); I felt so bad for our spork that the Pokémon named after him fainted to a silly critical hit! Whismur will not fall!

Dark type. About frickin' time.

I may have defeated Team Rocket in Saffron City but the losses I suffered were far greater than theirs, I was reckless and stupid and my levels were far too low so I visited the Fighting Dojo to seek training from the Karate Master. After my training was completed I was rewarded with a Hitmonchan that I named Jawbreaker to carry on my fallen Mankey's spirit.
I then decided to visit the Bike Path as I had heard it was full of trainers and would be a good place to train, however my path was blocked by a Pokemon, turned out that old guys flute was useful after all because now I can welcome Oreo the Snorlax to my team.

My training on the Bike Path went well and all my Pokemone were at a reasonable level when I reached the end. But sadly just outside of Fuchsia City a trainers Dodrio hit Balladeer with a 5 hit, multiple critical fury attack killing him in one turn.I wouldnt let it get me down though, not while Giovanni was still out there somewhere.

The Fucshia City gym was fairly easy with Fireball doing most of the damage with Dig against Poison types and Bite against Psychic types. After my victory at the gym I decided to take detour to the Safari Zone to see if I could find a Dratini to replace Balladeer the Gyarados. I had no luck finding any useful Pokemon but I did find some old guys teeth which I used to bribe him into giving me a new HM.
I still needed a new water Pokemon though so I used my recently aquired Super Rod to do some fishing and caught myself Nougat the Goldeen on Route 12 and Jelly Bean the Horsea on Route 19.

I figured now I would be ready for the Saffron City Gym now so I headed back there but ended up losing Jawbreaker to a Gastly's Destiny Bond. It seems my luck with fighting Pokemon isnt going to change any time soon. I headed back to Celdaon City to purchase Shadow Ball from the Game Corner which I taught to Oreo and headed back to Saffron. This time the trainers and gym leader all fell easily with no extra losses to my team.
I hadnt had much chance to train Gobstopper the Electrode recently so I headed off to Seafoam Islands to do just that. While I was there I caught myself a Psyduck and called him Airhead (thats an american sweet right?) and trained most of my Pokemon up to level 40 before continuing on to Cinnabar Island.

JayMoyles wrote:

Darunia: Level 26 by Pewter?! You must have done a LOT of grinding!

Yes indeed. This may or may not have been clear from the title.
I figured that I needed it, given how much of a disadvantage I was at. Admittedly, maybe level 26 was unnecessary, but I wouldn't like to have been far beneath it.

Awesome posts everyone, enjoyable reading.

Just to put my opinion in, I'd count the safari zone as one area, meaning only one Pokemon, ill add it as a rule if you all agree.

Laughed at Darunia's piece, I guess I was lucky enough to pick up a Mankey otherwise the long grind would of been the only option! Now im back ill resume my journey to Fushia city!

Oh, and ill update the tables with all the horrendous deaths and glorious badge victories!

Quite a lot has happened since my last post. Having levelled sporkhead2 into a Louded, the battle with May was trivial. Following this I rescued an old man's Wingull. Said old man took me on his boat to Dewford, a place filled with obsessives. Fortunately, one of them gave me his fishing rod. I promptly caught Phillips the Magikarp in the town's waters. Then I popped into Granite Cave, where I had a real battle with luck. The first monster to appear was an Abra. "No, no, no!" I said. Having nothing to lose I fired a Great Ball at the beast... which caught it! Overjoyed to flukily welcome Vidofnir the Abra to the team.

Once Dusty the Taillow was levelled up enough, Brawly's Gym (an eerie echo of the lower portions of Granite Cave) was a snap, as was getting to Steven and so letting me leave this whacked-out island nation. Slateport beckoned! And was reached very quickly. I got into the city without any beach battles and tried to get to Stern. The Museum was surrounded by Team Aqua types, who dispersed once I learned that Stern would be there. I paid the scandalous fee and walked upstairs to find the blithering idiot blithering idiotically. We were then jumped and, instead of calling for help, he relied on a little kid with a few Pokémon to save him. Which I did, realising how plot-important it would be to do so.

There's not much more to the tale - the first monster I met on Route 110 was another Poochyena. Instead of adding a third to the kennels, I took the possibly controversial step of taking it out. Dusty is now a Swellow... and that's all, folks!

At Cinnabar Island I found that the gym was locked, perhaps the gym leader was heard I was coming and locked the doors out of fear. Luckily the key wasnt very well hidden so I got into the gym without too much trouble. I had no time for Blaines silly quizes so I forced my way through to him with Airhead and Oreo who easily 1-hit KO'd every one of his Pokemon. I'm not playing games anymore.
I exit the gym and who's there waiting for me? Bill with that creepy stare of his.


Great. I knew helping him in Cerulian would come back and bite me in the ass later. He asked me to go to some islands with him, I really didnt want to but quite frankly he scares me a little and who knows, maybe I'll get a chance to relax.
After a long boat trip filled with awkward silence we finally arive at One Island. Very original name that. Before I've barely had a chance to look around Bill asks me to deliver a rock to someone on Two Island, so much for relaxing.
So I head off to Two Island and find the guy that collects rock but apparently he lost his daughter, turns out it's not a great idea to send a small child to pick berries in a dangerous forest. Who knew?
So I head off once again, this time to Three Island only to be confronted with another problem, the entire town has been overun by some biker gang, these islands are just full of wonderful people. Luckily for me the bikers were nothing compared to Team Rocket and I defeated them easily.
I found the girl shortly after and saved her from a Hypno, I was expecting some kind of "thank you" but her dad seemed more excited by the rock, so I handed it over and headed off back to Kanto.
I am making no plans to go back there any time soon.

Ariving safely back in Kanto me and my Pokemon decided to find out where Giovanni is hiding from some Team Rocket members. It only took some "polite questioning" from Apple Whip before they let slip that he owned the gym in Viridian City. Revend and the 8th Gym badge all in one go. Looks my journey is finally coming towards it's end.

I pass through Pallet Town on the Way to Viridian City but I dont stop by my home, I dont think I can ever go back there now, I wouldnt want my mother to see the man I've become, when I left I was just a innocent young man looking for adventure but now I'm broken and twisted driven only by revenge.
I arive at Viridian City Gym and waste no time getting to Giovanni, this is it, nowhere for Giovanni to run, no turning back for me, only one of us is leaving this gym alive.


The battle started off well, his Ryhorn fell in one turn to surf
He sent out Nidoqueen, I quickly switched to Fireball but he fell to earthquake
I switched to Airhead and KO'd Nidoqueen with 2 surfs, Airhead took some heavy damage though
Nidoking comes out next, I switch to Apple Whip but apple whip gets hit hard by an earthquake and I need to switch again
Oreo finished off Nidoking but also takes a lot of damage. I quickly reailse I need to make a sacrifice in order to heal
Giovanni sends out Dugtrio, I switch to gobstopper, he survives long enough to heal Apple Whip and Airhead but sadly falls before I can switch him out.
I send out Apple whip and Dugtrio falls to Razor Leaf
He Sends out Rhydon and Razor Leaf does some heavy damage but so does his earthquake, I'm faster but the risk isnt worth it so I switch to Airhead and finish him off with surf.

he doesnt try to escape this time, he doesnt even ask for mercy, he just stands their emotionless while his gym collapses around him as a result of the battle.
It's over. Team Rocket is finished.
My journey isnt finished yet though, I still have one last goal: To become the champion.

So, on my way to Fushia the only noticeable pokemon I catch is Stu Great the Snorlax. Leaving him out of the party for now I continue on my way, beating trainers and incurring no losses, as well as landing Dusty the Venonat. A few of my party evolve, and the formation of my league challengers is beginning to take place!

In Fushia I have a little less fortune, not managing to snag myself any neat safari pokemon. I then defeat all of the Hells Angels on route 19 and return to Fushia to face the poison gym and Koga!

On my way to Koga, I notice several trainers carrying Drowzee and Hypno in their teams. This worries me as my team is not strong against psychic. Between JayMoyles Magnitude and Balladuo's Psychic attacks I weave my way through the maze and stand before Koga.

The battle was fairly easy, switching out JayMoyles as I find out his first pokemon is koffing, Balladuo then proceeds to take down his team with Psychic and Dreameater super effective attacks. After being awarded my Soulbadge and the ability to surf I head to past location in search of loot. I take a quick peek inside the powerplant hoping for a magnemite. However I was even more fortunate as I stumble across an Electabuzz!

My team is nearing champion challenging status!

[tr]

Name	Pokemon	Name	Pokemon	Name	Pokemon
ZeroJones		Balladuo		Andyman
JayMoyles		Shanks		Phillips

It's black armband time for me again, guys.

In trying to evolve Stu Great the Poochyena into his mightier descendant, I got him Howled up and then confused. He hurt himself in said confusion and fainted. My apologies to him, and also to Jaster, whose name I was going to choose for my next monster. It'll now be Stu Great2. However, it's good news for Phillips, as I'm now set on evolving him into a Gyarados.

I had deafeated Giovanni but I had a feeling that my next opponents wouldnt be so easy, to become a legend I must first defeat and I knew exactly where to start: The Legendary Birds of Kanto.
My first destination was the Powerplant, where better to find the electric type bird Zapdos? Upon entering the Powerplant I caught myself a Pikachu and named her Sherbet. Sure enough further into the powerplant I found Zapdos who was no match for Oreos Blizzard.
If Zapdos was hiding in the powerplant then it only makes sense for Articuno to be in the icy caves of Seafoam Islands. The battle ended quickly with Sherbet taking it down with only 2 Thunderbolts despite the fact that Articuno was 20 levels higher.
Only one more to go and being a fire type Moltres must be hiding in a volcano. There isnt any volcano's in Kanto so it looks like I'll be heading back to the Sevii Islands after all. On my way up I was lucky enough to find a Rapidash who joined my team as Candy Apple. Once again Sherbet takes down the legendary bird with very little effort, she has quickly become a valuable member of the team.
With the three Legendary Birds defeated I feel like I'm finally ready to take on the Pokemon League